The art event Scare in the Community was held over the space of an evening at Hackney’s mental health art resource, Core Arts. The show scrutinized the fissure between mental health service users art and work by ‘professional’ artists by simply showing the two sides alongside each other.

Whilst current mental health practice aims to de-institutionalise people by sending them ‘out’ into the community, many mental health service users still find themselves just as discriminated and isolated as they were inside former mental health institutions.

Reflecting on these ideas of de-institutionalisation, Scare in the Community showcased art works that directly relate to issues of community care alongside art works, which explore their relationship to the art world’s institutions of power, elitism and exclusion.

The event included 2D work by Leona Christie, Terry Jones, Stick, Enda Burke and Josephine Wood, 3D work by Julika Gittner and Natasha Rees, performances by Frank Bangay and Laure Prouvost, music by Temple of Mithras, a presentation by Jean-Paul Martinon and Peter Cross, videos by the art groups IRIE MIND, Octavia Arts and CoolTan Arts as well as videos by George Barber, Ian Bourne, David Blandy, Alex Ingram, Jon Purnell, Tessa Garland, Erica Scourti, Enda Burke, Josephine Wood, Stephen Jackson, Boyle and Shaw, Laure Prouvost and a publication by Eleanor Vonne Brown.